Twelfth+Caluri+1

[[image:http://www.classbrain.com/artteenst/uploads/presidents.jpg]]The 12th Amendment[[image:http://www.classbrain.com/artteenst/uploads/presidents.jpg]]
By: Nick Todino, Matt Holstein, and Bruno Bertozzi



The 12th amendment reads as follows:

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

The 12th amendment is what makes the elections what they are today. Along with the rules.

The Twelfth Amendment was made to have a fair election for President and Vice President. The old way didn't allow a member of the Electoral College to vote for a person who lived in their state. Before the 12th amendment, each member had 2 votes. They could not vote for people who lived in their state. The winner had to have over 51% of the votes. With 2 votes per person, 2 or more people could have a 51% majority. The winner would have to have more votes. The votes were changed to 1 with the introduction to the 12th amendment, so there would only be one person with a 51% or more majority, or a tie. In the case of a tie, Senate would vote on it and the winner would have to have a 51% majority. The runner up of the original amendment became the Vice-President.

The 12th amendment broke what was written in the 2nd amendment. The 2nd amendment was to make it that the Electoral College voted for both in one election. The problems were issued in the elections of 1796 and 1800. The 12th amendment was proposed on December 9th, 1803 by the U.S. Congress, and ratified on June 15th, 1804, required electors to place 2 distinct votes; One for President and one for Vice President.

With this amendment in place, the person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President, became Vice President. If there was a tie, Senate would decide the Vice President with a 2/3 majority winning, picking the 2 highest runners.

The several State legislatures ratified the Twelfth Amendment on the following dates: North Carolina, 22 Dec. 1803; Maryland, 24 Dec. 1803; Kentucky, 27 Dec. 1803; Ohio, between 5 Dec. and 30 Dec. 1803; Virginia, between 20 Dec. 1803 and 3 Feb. 1804; Pennsylvania, 5 Jan. 1804; Vermont, 30 Jan. 1804; New York, 10 Feb. 1804; New Jersey, 22 Feb. 1804; Rhode Island, between 27 Feb. and 12 Mar. 1804; South Carolina, 15 May 1804; Georgia, 19 May 1804; New Hampshire, 15 June 1804; and Tennessee, 27 July 1804. The amendment was rejected by Delaware on 18 Jan. 1804, and by Connecticut at its session begun 10 May 1804. Massachusetts ratified this amendment in 1961.

__Nicks Current Event:__
Today in the U.S. the electoral prosses has been made much easier than before the 12 amendment was added. As you can see in the web connection bellow the electoral prosses has been made easier to understand. In that article it states that in this years presidential election that Clinton has a more electoral votes than Obama. you can see this by going over the states with the mouse and see the percentage of the each states electoral votes.

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

__Matt's Current Event:__
Senator John Kerry supports Senator Barack Obama becoming U.S. President. He believes that Obama will "bring new credibility to America’s role in the world and help restore our moral authority." as he states in a rally at the College of Charleston. Kerry's statement made Governor Bill Richardson drop out of the race. He says that this is “exhilarating and humbling” in his speech. Kerry also states that Obama will "inspire millions of Americans to join together and come together in a movement." Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota also stated that he supports Senator Hilliary Clinton of becoming U.S. President the day that Kerry stated he supports Obama. Two Senators dropped out not long after. Since these two dropped out, Senator Ben Nelson is more inclined to support Obama.

__Bruno's Currunt Event:__
The cause of the disruption was President Bush's speech to the National Defense University on Wednesday, in which described the nuclear black market network created by the Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. In the trading network that Dr. Khan spawned to sell nuclear equipment and designs, some companies involved were doing legitimate business in finely tooled parts without knowing where the components would end up. Like the SMB Group, another company that said it did not intentionally take part in Dr. Khan's network was Scomi Precision Engineering, a manufacturing firm in Malaysia.

__Here are some websites:__
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=4072649c9aafeac1bfe739a610c03bba52b84b9d http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=899c7d82ae36f3f0de93920b2715d0e8319b928a http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/usconstitution/zoom.weml